Grow Your Spotify Followers With These 5 Tips in 2022
Spotify was founded in Sweden by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzo in 2006 and it is currently one of the biggest streaming services in the world, dominating the music industry.
What you will find in the blog:
- Understand Your Target Audience
- Promote Your Spotify On Social Media Platforms
- Make And Promote Your Own Spotify Playlist
- Pitch Your Music to Spotify Playlist Curators
- Release music more frequently
- Pitch Your Music to Spotify Playlist Curators
Standing out among so many talented musicians on such a competitive platform is hard and overwhelming. In an article written by Rollin Stone, it was estimated that 40,000 new songs are being uploaded to the platform every day. As an emerging artist, if you want to further grow your career, expanding your Spotify followers is crucial for your future success for countless reasons. However, growing your Spotify followers and streams doesn’t happen overnight and it is easier said than done. It takes a lot of time, dedication, and most importantly a solid long-term strategy. But, if you are consistent in your approach and execution, you can succeed.
The music world is constantly changing, there are new genres and sounds evolving, but one thing that doesn’t change for musicians is the need to constantly grow their audience. The most important part of gaining new Spotify followers and streams, is to make them want to come back and listen more, but how exactly can you achieve that? As experts in the field, in this DaimoonMedia article, we’re helping you with 5 marketing hacks you can use to grow your Spotify followers.
Before we get into how to get new Spotify followers, let’s discuss the importance of knowing who your target audience is.
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Increasing a fan base means staying connected and engaged with fans through your music. However, to do so, as an artist you need to have a clear understanding of your audience’s preferences. Put yourself in your fan’s shoes and think about what excites them, ask yourself: “Who are they?”; “What do they like in terms of genres?”. You can truly reach your fanbase after you get to know them. Furthermore, more relevant information can be obtained from meaningful data and insights, and you can find it on Spotify for Artists.
Pro Tip: if you want to go to the next level in your research, understand the audience of artists that are similar to you. Get into Chartmetric and find out where those fans are based, who they listen to, what brands they like, which language they speak, what their favorite social channels are, and how many fans the artist has in the first place. The list goes on.
On the Spotify for Artists dashboard in the Music Tab, you can see detailed statistics for every song, and see how much your music resonates with your fans. In addition, when you go to the Audience tab, you can see your followers’ interactions. Understanding your target audience is not only about demographics, but much more. You must see how they interact with your music so you can incorporate those insights into your future releasing plans and marketing strategies. Pay attention to the ratio of engagement to activity. What the listener does with your music is just as important as getting the song. If people share it, like it, and add it to their playlists, those tracks are more likely to be endorsed by the algorithm than tracks with a lot of listeners but no engagement.
2. Promote Your Spotify On Social Media Platforms
When you are looking to increase your Spotify fanbase, it’s important to use the leverage of social media platforms. Everyone’s nowadays spending time on social media, and this is where your focus should be. You can create an Instagram page with your artist’s name and branding. Post content valuable for your audience and begin promoting your Spotify account.
However, if you already have such an account, you can share your Spotify profile through Instagram Stories, or using Spotify’s QR codes. Your potential listeners are already waiting in the corners of the social media, you just have to funnel your audience into the streaming platform and turn them from Instagram followers into Spotify followers.
Pro Tip: There are other ways to promote your music outside of your Instagram page or ads. You can contact some music blogs, YouTube channels or even friends and get yourself out there.
P.s. Spotify loves it when you’re driving people to the platform. Keep sharing!
3. Make And Promote Your Own Spotify Playlist
By creating your playlist, you not only attract followers but also create an identity for yourself as an artist. In the playlist, you can include your music, but also music linked with the emotion that you are trying to transfer through the playlist. Moreover, it is also a nice way for your fans to engage with you and get to know you more. There is a big chance that the playlist followers can become your followers as well.
4.Pitch Your Music to Spotify Playlist Curators
Being able to feature your new songs and releases on well-known Spotify playlists can make a big difference in your music career and Spotify followers. You must have come across the curated Spotify playlist such as Discover Weekly, New Music Friday or Throwback Thursday, and you may wonder “but how can I get a spot in one of those biggest playlists?” First, you need to know that there are 3 types of Spotify playlists, and pitching to them differentiates based on the type of playlist. It’s important to understand these differences to get the attention when Spotify’s employees review your song for the playlists.
Spotify Algorithmic Playlists
These types of playlists are generated by Spotify’s algorithm, and they look different depending on each user’s preferences. Such playlists are Discover Weekly and Release Radar, but also Daily Mixes. To increase the chances of you getting a spot on these playlists, you must have a lot of followers, streams, and people who save your track in their library and playlists, so Spotify can validate that your music is attractive to their users.
Spotify Editorial Playlists
These are playlists created by Spotify’s editorial team. Spotify’s employees take the time to listen, evaluate your tracks and decide if they should place them on a relevant very well curated popular Spotify playlist. Through Spotify For Artists, you can pitch your music directly to playlists created by Spotify’s editors. You can send the track to Spotify 4 weeks before the release for review in the playlist. If a playlist is curated by Spotify, you can tell by the Spotify symbol in the top left corner of the artwork. The steps in pitching to Spotify’s playlist are very simple:
- Sign in to your Spotify for Artists account.
- Select “Pitch a Song” located in the Home tab.
- Select your song and put as much information as possible.
Pro Tip: Do not try to pitch your song to every Spotify playlist. Make sure you choose to pitch to the most suitable playlists, meaning the right genre and style for your song. Moreover, personalize your outreach messages when sending your music to the Spotify playlist curators. You can also include some information about your plans on promoting this track yourself, as they would like to know if they will include a song that will get popularity.
Spotify User Curated Playlists
The third type of playlist is called User Curated Playlists. They are like editorial playlists, but instead of being created by Spotify employees, these playlists are created by Spotify users. Pitching to those playlists varies based on the playlist. For user-created playlists, there are usually two other groups into which these playlists are categorized.
Label curated playlists
Not surprisingly, major record labels are investing in Spotify playlists. They even have their playlist brand built around curating playlists to get the artist’s exposure. Unfortunately, as an independent artist, putting songs on these Spotify playlists is not easy. There is no way to send your song to be included in the playlist. The main reason for those playlists is to help promote artists who have signed the relevant record label.
Individual playlists
These playlists are created by different users. However, pitching to them can be quite difficult as there is often missing contact information so you can reach those users. However, once you have the list of playlists you want to pitch your songs to, you need to visit Google, Facebook, and other social media platforms and try to find any contact details.
5. Release music more frequently
With more frequent releases, you can keep your followers engaged, keep your monthly listeners high, and increase the chances that your track will appear in these playlists. Spotify keeps track of everything. As part of the Spotify algorithm, such as skipping songs, listening, user behavior, adding playlists, following, etc. Moreover, Spotify works with an algorithm, which recommends new music and Spotify’s playlist to listeners. As a musician, the more you keep your fans and users on Spotify, consuming content, streaming your songs, and following new releases, the more Spotify’s algorithm will reward you.
BONUS TIP: One of the best ways to increase the popularity of your Spotify account is to network with music creators in a wider community. This opens the opportunity to promote each other’s work and provide something that fans can enjoy, such as from the community of related artists.
To Wrap Up
Spotify is a platform that offers you many possibilities. If you can achieve minor success, stay active and continue to provide what people have proven to want. If you have a significant follower base on Spotify, the algorithm may be in your favor in the long run. The algorithm recognizes your engagement, makes you more and more visible in Spotify-generated playlists, and almost automatically builds a loyal Spotify listener base in the long run. Finally, it’s important to note that to be successful as a Spotify artist, you need more hard work promoting than talent. To win this game, you need to be consistent. Your actions should follow a strategic roadmap, but the details are up to you!
So in short, you might have started reading this blog with a vague idea of how to increase your Spotify followers. Through our article, we showed you some tips and tricks that you can implement for your growth strategy. Curious if you can use more help in growing your artist career? Make sure to read our next blog and follow us on our social media channels. Moreover, feel free to ask us your questions to us on our Instagram (@daimoonmedia)!
